6 facts about Seo In-guk, star of Netflix’s Café Minamdang – the ‘chameleon’ K-drama actor loves food, music, his mum … and older women
Need something fresh to perk you up this summer? How about settling in for a coffee at Café Minamdang, Netflix’s new K-drama that introduces the venue’s mysterious customers and the quirky things that happen there?
“Just like a fan that’s needed in hot weather, Café Minamdang will come with a cool story in the heat of summer,” its biggest star Seo In-guk, told Soompi. In the lead role, opposite Oh Yeon-seo and Kang Mi-na, he plays a criminal profiler-turned-shaman who serves not only coffee but also justice at his cafe. But after a decade of playing various characters, who is the real Seo off-screen?
I think that love has no age boundaries. I would prefer an intelligent woman over a pretty one as my ideal type
I think that love has no age boundaries. I would prefer an intelligent woman over a pretty one as my ideal type
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Singing and acting are equally important to him
Born in 1987, Seo had different dreams as an ambitious kid: to be a racing driver, weightlifter or even the president. He eventually became a singer after beating out 720,000 other applicants to win season one of the survival show Superstar K in 2009. Three years later, he also became an actor with Love Rain and Reply 1997, leading to a series of lead roles that won him several awards between 2012 and 2016, per Channel Korea.
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The 34-year-old has focused on acting in recent years but he never forgot his passion for music. He created his own studio, writes original songs and has contributed to several original soundtracks, as he told AllKpop. On June 14, he released an album, Love & Love, five years after his last one, Walk Together, underlining that he feels music and film are “big parts of myself and my life”, as he told Australia’s SBS PopAsia in 2016.
“I am ambidextrous so if I am asked to choose between being a singer and an actor, it’s like as if you’re asking me not to use one hand. I focus on my acting when I act, but I live within my music at any other time. I feel like acting and singing coexist inside myself,” he told InStyle. “I think the correct answer is to work hard and improve both sides equally.”
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He wants to be more of a “chameleon”
On the acting side, Seo has been seen in a diverse series of roles over the years, from a high school student to a swimmer, a rich heir and a prince. After portraying all these “good guys” successfully, now he is interested in playing a baddie.
“No matter what kind of villain, I want to give it a try. There could be reasons that pushes a person to become a villain. These are also people who are born evil. I’ve not been able to show this side of me before. If it was me, how would I portray such a character? I have such expectations of myself. And I want to do well and show everyone,” he explained to Spotlight.
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“I have set a new goal to challenge myself to take on new acting genres. I want to be a diversified artiste – an actor with many different ‘colours’,” he also told One TV Asia.
His mother is his role model
Seo always appreciates and looks up to his mother as his role model. From a humble background, she collected recyclables to feed the family and didn’t stop work even after he became famous.
“I told her to stop and rest comfortably but she said she didn’t want to because if she rests and stops working, her body would grow sick and she told me that she enjoys meeting new people,” he told AllKpop. “I think I resemble my mother in that aspect. I can’t take a break or rest. When I do, I just want to work again. So she’s my role model.”
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Seo would be a role model for many sons too. He gave his parents all of his US$90,000 Superstar K winning prize and opened a coffee shop for his mother in his hometown in Ulsan.
He loves to eat
What does Seo like? Simply, eating. That was his answer in The Celebrity interview on Daegorr after he “got excited and happy when he saw the strawberry banana juice”.
Food also helps him release stress and his choice is “chicken, of course, or meat, chocolate and sweets”, he told GQ Korea. He also added that he rarely drank.
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He thinks his dimples may bring a “heart attack”
Can’t forget Seo’s disarmingly cute dimples and mole under his left eye? He is very proud of his dimples, viewing them as his “secret weapon”.
“I don’t have to do anything about the mole, it’s just there. But the dimples don’t appear if I don’t smile,” he said before showing them off in an interview with GQ Korea, joking, “You can see it now. This could be a bit of a … heart attack maybe.”
He’s attracted to older women
Starting in middle school, Seo often liked older girls, he says, blaming his parents’ seven-year gap on SBS’s Snack Channel. Growing up, his opinion hasn’t changed. Age is still just a number to him.
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“I think that love has no age boundaries. I would prefer an intelligent woman over a pretty one as my ideal type,” he told One TV Asia.
- He beat 720,000 others to win survival show Superstar K in 2009, won awards for 2012’s Reply 1997 and was last seen in 2021’s Doom At Your Service
- He dotes on his mum, opening a coffee shop for her in hometown Ulsan, is releasing new K-pop album Love & Love, and stars alongside Oh Yeon-seo and Kang Mi-na in the new show